Kashf al-Maḥjūb (Persian Critical Edition)

They have named asceticism and desire 'spiritual intent' iradat will/aspiration, the delusions of nature 'gnosis' ma'rifat knowledge of God, the stirrings of the heart and inner talk 'love', heresy 'poverty' faqr spiritual destitution, denial of truth 'purity', zandaqa crypto-infidelity 'annihilation' fana passing away of the self, and they have named the abandonment of the Prophet's Sharia—peace and blessings be upon him—'the Path' tariqat the Sufi way, and the calamity of the people of the age 'proper conduct' mu'amalat religious practice. Thus, the masters of meaning have become veiled among them, while these [pretenders] have gained the upper hand.

As Abu Bakr al-Wasiti—may God have mercy on him—the king of the people of truths, the proof of verification, and the master of subtleties, said so beautifully regarding the state of the people of the house of the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—with the house of Marwan: "We have been afflicted with a time that possesses neither the manners of Islam, nor the character of the Age of Ignorance jahiliyya, nor the judgments of those possessing honor."

Shibli said, in agreement with this:

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Know, may God strengthen you, that I found this world to be the site of some of the secrets of the Lord, a place for His deposits, and a station for His subtle mercies lata'if subtleties toward His friends. Yet, the physical substances, accidents, elements, bodies, forms, and natures are all veils to those secrets. To affirm any of these in the station of divine unity tawhid oneness of God is polytheism. Therefore, God Almighty kept this world in the place of a veil so that the natures of each thing found tranquility in their own world by His command. They remained veiled from the unity of the Truth by their own existence, and the spirits became preoccupied with their temperaments. By this association, they remained far from the place of sincerity, to the point that divine secrets became difficult for the intellects to grasp, and the subtle points of nearness became hidden from the spirits. Thus, humanity is veiled within the shadow of heedlessness by its own existence, and in the place of particularity, it is faulted by its own veil, just as God Almighty said: "By the Age, indeed mankind is in loss" Quran 103:1; and He also said: "Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant" Quran 33:72. And the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—said: "God created the creation in..."